Apple Picking
by Charlie O'Kelley
Summary: Castle is the victim of apple picking. Kate isn't too pleased by that news. Rated T for now. If more is posted it will be rated M. This is a very belated birthday gift for my buddy Rayleen.


Apple Picking

Rated T for some innuendo (any additional parts that may be posted will be rated M)

Disclaimer: I do not own Castle or anything related to it other than my copy of the DVD's.

When I first started writing this story, it was over the summer and the NYC news that I watch, talked about this very crime. The stats that I posted are from the news broadcast.

This was originally written (or started at least) as a birthday present for my buddy Rayleen. I know, I am a bit late. Oops. I hope you enjoy it anyway. Now on to the story.

"Beckett! I need to talk to you," Castle exclaimed as he rushed to her desk.

"I'm busy Castle."

"This is important, Kate," he said emphasizing her given name.

"Fine," she tossed her pen to the desk and got up. "I can use some more coffee anyway."

They walked into the break room and after checking to make sure that no one was lying on the couch, Castle started to hem and haw.

"What is it, Castle?" she asked as she poured her coffee.

"Um."

"Oh come on, just spit it out. It's been three months since," she paused and glanced around again. "Then and no one has figured it out yet other than Ryan. Don't look so guilty and make it easy for anyone else."

"I'm not trying to, it's just that-"

"Hey you two, what's up?" Esposito asked as he and Ryan walked in and went for coffee, neither seeing the exasperated look on Castle's face.

"I don't know. Castle hasn't told me yet," Kate said as the writer stood there for a moment hoping that the partners would walk out once they got their coffee but his day had already been proven to be unlucky.

"Someone stole my iPhone," he finally admitted.

"Oh that sucks," Ryan said before he took a sip of his coffee.

"I swear Castle, I thought I told you to keep it in your pants," Kate said causing both Rick and Esposito to look at her like they wanted to say something but their attention was immediately grabbed by sputtering from Ryan, who had swallowed his coffee wrong.

"With all the stealing of Apple products lately," Kate explained suddenly realizing just how that first comment sounded. "I would have thought you would have known to keep your phone in your pocket."

"Yeah," said Esposito. "Street cops are calling it Apple Picking, it's happening so often."

"I heard it's something like one out of every seven crimes in the city," Ryan managed to say.

"Yeah, I know but Alexis sent me a text and I was just trying to respond and then poof, it was gone. Can I use one of your phones to send her a text and explain?"

"I can't believe that you haven't put some sort of tracking thing on your phone," Esposito commented as Kate pulled out her phone, unlocked it then handed it to Rick.

"You have a password on it right?" Kate asked.

"Yeah but it's not too hard to figure out."

"Don't tell me it's your birthday dude, cause that's pretty easy," Esposito said.

"No, it isn't my birthday," he said as he wrote a text to his daughter. "Or Alexis'"

"Whose birthday is it?" Ryan asked.

"I never said it was anyone's birthday," Castle said as he looked down at the phone in his hands.

"Why are you so worried about your phone anyway? It's not like you can't just go out and get another one."

"I know it's just that my phone has all my contacts on it," he started.

"What, you didn't sync it?" Kate asked surprised.

"No. I sync it everytime I plug it in, it's just that I don't think that some of those contacts would be too happy if their private numbers were found by some guy and released to the public."

"Good point, I know I don't want my number found by some random person," Kate said.

"It's not just the contacts though. I have my email account on it, my text messages, and my photos," Rick said as he looked directly at Kate. She immediately understood that he must have taken pictures of her and she was not pleased.

"Don't tell me that you took pictures of Little Ricky with your iPhone," Kate asked causing the two male detectives to laugh.

"Of course not. But I do have some pictures on my phone that I don't think need to be seen by anyone else."

"Come here and I'll see if we can track it," Kate sounded put out to have more work to do. Once they were both out of the break room she whispered to Rick. "If we don't find your phone you are a dead man. And when we do, you will erase any photos that you shouldn't have."

"I promise, it's not too bad," he said causing her to narrow her eyes at him. "Trust me."

"Why does that sound like a bad idea?" she said before she turned away to type into her computer.

"I don't know, it worked for Harrison Ford."

"What?" she questioned.

"You know, Han Solo and Indiana Jones."

"Yes, and I seem to recall that Han was frozen in carbonite and Indiana Jones burned down the woman's bar."

Rick had the presence of mind to look guilty and shut up. Kate continued to type for a while then after dialing a number on her phone, she handed it to Rick and said "Tell them I need access to your phone."

Within five minutes, Kate had a location but just before they were headed out, Captain Gates called out to Kate.

"I was just heading out, sir."

"On a case?" the captain asked, knowing that there wasn't a new case.

"Ryan, can you go and claim Castle's phone?" Kate asked him knowing that Esposito was on his way to talk to Lanie about a case. She also knew that Ryan wouldn't try to open the phone by himself especially if he suspected that there were risque pictures of her on it.

"Sure no problem," Ryan said, knowing exactly why she asked him and not Espo.

Kate and Rick headed into the captain's office when she happened to hear Espo talking to Ryan.

"What's Espo doing back here?" she asked Castle just before they walked into Gate's office. He held the door for Kate and was just able to keep his hand off of her back as she walked past him. His presence earning a small glare from the woman behind the desk before she ignored him.

"Detective, I called for you and not for your shadow. I wanted to go over your performance evaluation. Alone," she said sending another glare to Castle.

"Yes, ma'am, sir," he corrected himself immediately before he walked out stopping at the door. "Do I get a performance evaluation?"

"You can leave now, Mr. Castle," she said coolly before Castle walked out and shut the door behind him. "How have you been able to deal with him for four years?"

"He grows on you," Kate said.

"Like a fungus?" Gates asked. Kate tried to hide her smile as the subject was dropped and her evaluation began.

After Esposito explained that Lanie had emailed him the necessary files and he didn't need to make the trip to see her, he insisted on driving to get the phone. They were able to find it rather quickly but they were surprised to see that a homeless man had opened it and was playing on it.

"What are you doing with that phone?" Esposito asked in a gruff voice.

"Playin' Angry Birds," the man said, totally not impressed with the tone of voice that had been used.

"Well that's our friend's phone and he says it's stolen so unless you want us to take you to take you to jail, I'd hand it over," Ryan said.

"Fine," the man said disappointed as he shut off the phone. "I couldn't get past that level anyway."

"Hey bro, hand me the phone. I'll call Castle," Esposito said as they headed to their car.

"You don't know the password," Ryan said. "I guess the bum just kept the phone on the whole time or he had gotten lucky to guess it."

"I'm sure it's not too hard. He said it wasn't his or his daughter's birthday but he so lied when he said it wasn't anyone's birthday."

"You picked that up too?" Ryan smiled as he pulled into traffic, sure that he knew whose birthday it was.

"Pretty obvious. What's Mrs. R's birthday?"

"I don't know and I don't wanna ask her," Ryan said causing Esposito to chuckle.

"Probably for the better," Esposito said as he tried another birthday. "I'm in."

"Already? Whose birthday?"

"Beckett's. Interesting."

"What's that?" Ryan asked.

"The photo that he has for her contact info," Esposito turned the phone to show his partner.

"Whoa! Beckett's gonna kill him."

"No kidding. She obviously doesn't know about this or she wouldn't have sent us to get the phone."

"True. It's not a bad picture but what is Castle doing taking pictures of Kate when she is asleep?"

"Yeah, I think we need to have a little talk with Writer Boy," Esposito said menacingly.

Back at the precinct

"So Castle," Beckett asked when her evaluation was over. "What was the photo that you were all worried about? Little Ricky?"

"Big Rick, you know that," he said suggestively. She just rolled her eyes at him so he continued, but evading the full answer. "A photo of you."

"Okay, a photo of me where?"

"In bed," he said leaning back from her expecting the blast.

"I think I would have remembered you taking a picture of me."

"You were asleep."

"What?" she asked, clearly not pleased.

"It was the other night, at your place. You looked so peaceful, I couldn't resist taking a photo."

"You better hope the boys don't see that. I know you said you didn't use your birthday I hope you used something unusual then."

"1-1-1-7."

"You used my birthday?" she exclaimed. "You know the boys are going to figure that out right away. It's bad enough Ryan knows so you don't need to make it so easy for Esposito to figure it out." She poked him in the shoulder with her right hand. He surprised her by quickly taking her hand and holding it as if he were shaking it, his thumb caressing the back of her hand for a moment before her's reciprocated.

"I will make it up to you, I promise."

"I will hold you to that. And you better think of something to tell the boys as to why you were taking pictures of me while I'm asleep in my bed."

"Okay, I will," he smiled as he dropped her hand, his fingers lightly tickling her palm. "Tru-"

"And don't say 'Trust me."

Rick sat down and started to think. Kate just hoped that he came up with something not too crazy and that he had time to tell her before the guys got back. She had just turned to work on the self evaluation that the captain had given her when her luck continued on the bad side.

"Hey Castle. Think fast," Esposito called as he walked up to his desk then tossed the phone.

"Thanks!" he said to Espo, then glancing to Ryan. Castle could tell by the look on Ryan's face that they had seen the photo.

"What do you think of Columbia University case Alexis got me?"

"Nice but what is more interesting is the photos you have on the phone," Esposito said in the same gruff voice that he used with the homeless guy. It worked far better this time.

"What are you talking about?" Castle attempted but everyone could tell that the gig was up.

"I think we all know what I'm talking about, Writer Boy."

"Okay, okay. Beckett hasn't even seen the picture yet," he explained as he opened the phone and showed her the picture. She was glad that she was fully covered and that the sheets were rather feminine so they didn't look like something that would be on Castle's bed.

"When the hell did you take that picture of me?" she asked Castle, her voice gruff like Esposito's but hoping that Castle could tell that she wasn't nearly as upset as she could have been.

"Yeah, I think we all want to know that," Esposito insisted not noticing the 'Oh hell no' look on Ryan's face.

"You remember how Beckett left early on Friday?" Castle asked.

"Yeah, she _said_ she wasn't feeling well," Esposito said now suspicious.

"Yeah well, she told me that she felt bad on Friday night. Saturday night, I went over there-"

"Much to my surprise," Kate interrupted.

"And I took her something to eat. She was starting to feel better after she ate but before I left, she fell asleep."

"So why did you feel the need to take her picture?"

"She looked so peaceful," he explained looking into Kate's eyes. They both remembered the enthusiastic horizontal mambo had caused that peaceful look.

"So you took the picture then just left?" Esposito asked.

"Not exactly," Castle said to Kate's surprise, her jaw dropping a bit. "I cleaned everything up from dinner because I knew that she woke up and saw a mess that would be the end of the peaceful."

"No kidding," Ryan said. "I know when Jenny gets sick, the last thing she wants is to get up and have to do any cleaning."

"Mother is like that too. But then again, when does she ever want to do any cleaning?" Castle asked rhetorically.

"I am not touching that one," Ryan insisted.

"You, my friend, are a smart man," Castle said. "How about a beer at the Old Haunt? My treat."

"Sure," Ryan said.

"I'm not going to turn down a free beer," Esposito said.

"I'll meet you two downstairs in just a minute," Castle said. He turned back to Kate and with a wink he said softly, "Told you to trust me."


End file.
